And We're Off
by Carlet
Summary: What happens if Emma and her and Killian's 17 year old daughter accidentally travel to the day that Emma met Hook, ruining things so that they never met? How will they fix things so that things work out the way they are supposed to? Sequel to For the Love of Swan.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: Basic premise of the story-right after the whole Neverland thing, Emma and Hook started dating, got married, had a daughter named Ava. Now I'm telling the story of both Ava and Emma's adventures, taking place when Ava is 17. If this sounds familiar, it's because I basically described For the Love of Swan. Yes, this story is the official sequel to FTLS but you do not have to read that in order to read this. I repeat, you do not have to have read For the Love of Swan in order to read this story. You should be able to follow the plot of this story without having read anything else.**

**For people that have read For the Love of Swan, yes I know I wrote the epilogue as Ava being 22, but I decided to start this story as her being 17 because it fit the story a bit better.**

**So basically Ava is 17, Emma and Hook are married, Henry has moved out because he is an adult not, etc. And Ava is adventurous and wants to do the same stuff her family did (like go to Neverland) but was never allowed to. **

Chapter 1

It started when she was about five. As soon as she'd taken her very first breath, her entire family, in particular her brother, had read to her from the now infamous book of fairytales. She knew her family's very complicated history by heart, fallen asleep with rich visions of how her mother had nearly allowed her father to be eaten by ogres, dreamed of sailing to another realm on the Jolly Roger, perhaps meeting a pirate captain of her own.

While most children (ones who didn't live in Storybrooke) grew up hearing about Cinderella and Snow White, dreaming of meeting them in real life, Ava Jones had lived with them, dined with them, celebrated holidays with them. Her fourth grade teacher had been Snow White, although she'd known her as grandma, and one of her best friends had been Roland, whose father was Robin Hood.

Yes, it was safe to say that Ava's life was far from normal. At least, in that aspect.

One of her first memories had been when she was about five, snuggled on the couch with her parents on either side. She remembered that she was sick (although she hadn't known it at the time), her nose heavy, her throat yucky and scratchy. She'd been miserable the entire day, wanting to do nothing but cry and hold her bear. Her mother had forced her to drink glass after glass of orange juice, which was normally her favorite, especially in her special Elmo cup, but that day she hadn't wanted any.

"_I know it hurts, Ava." Her mom had said. "But you have to drink. It'll help you feel better."_

"_No!" Ava cried. "Don't wanna."_

"_You want to watch Peter Pan?" Her dad suggested, naming her favorite movie._

"_No!"_

_Her dad sighed, running a hand over his face. They looked nearly as tired and uncomfortable as she had. (In fact, several days later her mother had caught her cold, causing her to stomp grouchily around the house, yelling at her father). "How about a nap?"_

"_No more naps."_

"_But you need to sleep to get better, Ava."_

"_No!"_

_Her dad threw a helpless look at her mom. "I don't know what else to do." _

_Her mom shrugged in response, her eyes flying around the room in search of something that would calm Ava down. Just then, her attention landed upon the book of fairytales that sat on the kitchen table. Henry had given it to Ava soon after she was born, saying that she needed to experience the magic of the book for herself too. Her mom brought the book over and opened it to a random page. "What about a story?"_

_Without waiting for a reply, her mom pointed a picture of Captain Hook, tied up against a tree with a blade pressed up against his neck. Both Hook and Emma looked annoyed as they stared daggers at each other. _

"_Want to hear about how I met Daddy?"_

_And then they weaved an incredible tale of ogres, giants, golden compasses, evil witches, pirate ships, and a realm called Neverland. Although Ava's throat still hurt and her nose was still clogged, she felt just the teensiest bit better. And she vowed that one day she'd go on an incredible adventure just like her parents had. _

But her parents hadn't seemed to understand that she wanted to be just like them. Every time she'd brought up going on an adventure she'd just been shot down, distracted with something else. It had worked when she was younger but now she was 17. The time for adventure was now, and she was going to go on one, even if it killed her.

* * *

><p>For several years now, Ava and Roland had a running bet to see who could outdo each other in a series of dares. Both Ava and Roland had descended from thieves, and it was almost as if they had inherited those particular genes. It had started small, from planting stink bombs to egging other people's houses to stealing tests, escalating to daring the other to steal something, anything, magical.<p>

It was easy for Roland. His stepmother was Regina, who taught him about magic on a regular basis, taking him to her vault and showing him different potions and things. So it had been rather easy for him to slip a temporary body switching potion into a pot of Granny's coffee. _That _had been one of the funniest days Ava could remember, everyone running around screaming as they realized what had happened.

And now it was Ava's turn. She'd tried, unsuccessfully, to steal something from Gold's, as that would put her way, way ahead, since everyone knew that Gold's shop was perhaps the most formidable of them all. So now she decided to try the convent instead. Fairies possessed tons of magic items, right?

The first step, getting in, was easy enough. She went inside with the guise of visiting Tink, who she'd known ever since she was little. Since Tink had been busy, the fairies allowed her to hang back and wait. All she had to do was smile as innocently as possible; she'd always been given everything she wanted. From the day she was born she had been a bit of a celebrity in Storybrooke.

She waited until the coast was clear and then slipped into the Blue Fairy's room. The Blue Fairy was like the head of all the fairies, so if she took something from her it would put her at least even with Roland.

_It was almost way too easy_, Ava thought as she opened a trunk under the Blue Fairy's bed. Almost as if she'd been asking to be robbed. But oh well. One person's lost would be Ava's gain.

A gold lamp? Nahh. What about a sparkly looking potion? Ava had already taken tons of potions, most of them pilfered from Regina's vault, and had experienced tons of side effects, from having herself shrink down to the size of a thimble to her skin turning bright green. That had been a piece of work to explain to her parents. She'd muttered something about makeup for a school play before slamming the door to her room to call Roland, demanding that he find a cure immediately.

It was quite funny how neither of their parents had found out (yet) what they'd been up to, though Ava was sure that her mother had her suspicions.

Her hand brushed against a slim box and she grabbed it. _Oooh, what was this? _Ava shook the box. It was lightweight and made nearly no sound, and there was no clasp or any opening. That meant that it was valuable, to Blue and now Ava. Stuffing it into her bag, she quickly shoved the trunk back under the bed and slipped outside.

"Can you tell Tink that I just remembered that I have something important to do?" She lied easily to a random fairy passing by. Ava held up her phone as if she'd received an urgent text and shrugged apologetically, feeling the weight of the box in her bag as she walked outside. Of course, the fairy had bought her story hook, line, and sinker. _Score. _

She waited to open the box until she was safely in her room, with the door locked. It was Saturday, and her mom was at work, her dad out with her grandpa. Henry had moved out years ago.

The box was sealed. Probably with magic, Ava supposed. The better to hold valuable items with. Well, too bad, because if there was one thing Ava was known for, it was not giving up. That, and her ability to eat a hot dog in three seconds flat.

She tried all sorts of things, from matches to a sword her father kept hidden in the back of his closet to just throwing the damn thing against the wall. Nope, nope, and nope.

But then she had a thought. For her last birthday Mr. Gold had given her a knife that he claimed would allow her to cut through anything. _Anything, _he'd said, throwing her a meaningful look. Ava had just shrugged and tossed it aside. It was just a knife, and she didn't really need it.

Also she'd been a bit mad that out of all the magical items in his shop, he gave her a stupid knife. What was she supposed to do with it, cut her steak?

Until now. When he'd said anything, could he have meant that it could cut through magic? Why else would he have given it to her?

It took a while to find the knife (she'd inherited her mother's messy habits) but when she finally did, a wave of disappointment similar to the one she'd experienced when she'd received the knife passed through her again. It was just an ordinary knife, resembling one that she'd seen her dad use in the past.

Ava grasped the knife with one hand and stuck the tip into the box, tracing around it. At first, it appeared as if her efforts had been futile. Nothing happened.

But then, just then, the box began to glow, growing hot in her hands. And the top dissolved, revealing a small black object.

She stared at the knife, impressed. So it _had _been magical. Well thank you Mr. Gold. Ava threw it aside and tipped the box over. Could this be? _The _black fairy's wand, the one she'd only ever read about in the book?

There was only one way to find out. Aiming it at her bedside lamp, she flicked her wrist, and to her surprise the lamp turned on, glowing brighter than it ever had before.

_No way. _It worked. It really, truly worked! Wait until Roland heard about this. He'd pee his pants with jealousy.

Ava flicked her wrist again and again, aiming the wand at various objects in her room, making them dance and glow. Damn, this was fun. Why didn't her mother do this? Didn't she know how amazing magic felt? And more importantly, why had Ava waited so long to steal the wand?

Something occurred to her. This was the most powerful wand, like ever, right? Then could it create a portal? For the longest time all Ava wanted was to travel to another realm. She hadn't been able to find a magic bean or locate Jefferson's hat. But what about this wand?

The last thing she wanted was to ruin any of her stuff, so Ava pushed herself up and walked to the backyard. She closed her eyes and imagined a portal, waving her arm. Suddenly, a gust of wind appeared, causing her hair to stand up everywhere. She opened her eyes to find a swirling mass in the grass, identical to ones she'd seen in the storybook.

She'd done it!

"Ava?" There were footsteps behind her, followed by the sliding of the glass door. "What're you doing?"

Oh, shit shit shit. She'd forgotten that her mother left work early on Saturdays. Maybe there was a way she could close the portal. She frantically waved the wand around and around, willing the portal to disappear but it remained where it was.

Without waiting for a reply, Emma stomped over to where Ava stood. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Her eyes landed on the wand in Ava's hand. "Where did you get that?"

"Um," Ava stammered. "Hi Mom."

"AVA!" Emma cried. "Answer me now! Is this a portal? What did you do?"

"Alright, I'm sorry but-"

"Oh, you're gonna be." Emma interrupted.

"I just wanted to go on an adventure." Ava argued. "Like you and dad did."

"Don't start with that. I can't believe you'd go behind my back like this. Where did you even get that?"

There was a rumble, and before Ava could answer she felt the ground start to slide towards the portal, taking her with it. "I said I was sorry!"

"That's not enough."

A sudden flare of anger rose up inside her. Why did her mother never believe her? Why was it always her fault, when Ava was just mirroring what her parents had done in the past? "But it's not my fault!" She insisted.

"It's not, huh? And how, exactly?!"

"You're always talking about everything you did. Going to Neverland, fighting evil witches, using magic. When is it going to be my turn?"

"Ava, like I've told you before, none of those things were fun. They were life or death situations. If you had been there-"

"But I wasn't! And I never will, because you won't let me. Why don't you get it, Mom? You met Dad in the Enchanted Forest. You were the freaking savior and saved everybody in Storybrooke. What if I want to do that too? What's so wrong with that?" Ava faced the portal with a grim determination. She knew from the book that portals closed after a short time. It was now or never. "It's my turn now."

Emma realized what Ava was about to do seconds before it happened. She made a grab for her daughter but was too late; Ava leaped into the air.

"AVA!"

She disappeared into the depths of the portal.

"Why is it always me?" Emma muttered as she clenched her fists. She sighed deeply and then allowed herself to be sucked into the portal.

So much for her plans for a peaceful Saturday night.

**Author's note: What did everyone think? Thoughts before you go? **


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: Thanks for the great response to the first chapter! I start school on Monday and I am NOT looking forward to it. Who's with me?**

Chapter 2

Emma saw the ground before she actually reached it, the barren, once rich green grass rising up to meet her face before she collided against it. Several feet away, she heard a groan as Ava hit the rough terrain.

"You ok?" She said as she pushed herself up; the first (well, no, her first had been through the wardrobe but she didn't really count that) time she'd been through a portal she'd been pulled through, and had become unconscious as she hit a piece of debris. The second time had been on Killian's ship, and the nausea-inducing journey on the boat that sliced vertically upwards from the water had been far different. It occurred to her that this was her first _normal _journey through a portal.

Yes, because traveling through portals was normal.

"Uh huh." Came the reply. Ava's swiveled her head around. Her eyes grew wide as she took in the landscape around her. "Where are we?"

"I don't know." Emma couldn't help but infuse her words with sarcasm as she too, took a look around. It seemed vaguely familiar but she couldn't really place it. "You were the one who opened the damn thing and jumped in. What were you thinking of?"

"Huh?"

She sighed, exasperated. "When you travel through a portal, it takes you to the place you last thought about. So what you thinking of?"

"Um…" Ava paused, wracking her brain. It was mostly a jumble of excitement from her success with the wand to dread over her mother finding out what she'd done. "I think I was thinking about you and Dad? Like the first time you met."

Emma nodded as she took this in. "Alright, so I suppose we're in the Enchanted Forest. That would explain why it looks so familiar."

"Really?" Ava immediately perked up. "And here I thought it'd just taken us to Iowa or somewhere boring like that. _Cool_."

"No, no, no." Emma shook her head. "Not cool. Not cool at all." She gestured to the wand in Ava's hand. "Open up the portal again and take us back. Now."

"What? No!"

"Ava Marie Jones. You open the portal and take us back home this instant. And when we get home you're grounded."

"Seriously? We just got here and you want to leave? If I'm going to be grounded I might as well get a look around."

"Absolutely not." Emma insisted. "You have no idea of the dangers that are here."

"You're right." Ava agreed. "And you wanna know why? Because _you wouldn't let me do anything fun._"

"You think I wanted to keep you from all of this? You think I have fun telling you no? This just proves that you're not ready. You can't even take care of yourself."

"Well maybe I could _learn _if someone would let me. I don't get it Mom, I really don't. You and Dad went off on adventures, living in cars or pirate ships, stealing, traveling the world. Why can't I?"

The words tumbled out of Emma's mouth before she could stop herself. "Because WE DIDN'T HAVE PARENTS. No one to stop or protect us. It sounded great, huh? But what you don't know is that it _sucked._ But you don't know that, of course. Because you're lucky and you will never know what it feels to be alone."

"Mom…"

"But you know what?" Emma continued. "If you want to go so bad, go."

Ava blinked. She hadn't expected her mother to say that. "What?" She asked uneasily.

"Go!" Emma repeated. "Go. I won't stop you. You want adventure? You want to travel the world? Well, go. Take your little wand and have fun." And then she turned her back and crossed her arms, her form hunched over with anger.

"Mom, come on I'm sorry." Ava tried.

Emma ignored her.

Well, fine. If her mother wanted to be that way then oh well. "You know what? I think I will." She took off down the hard dirt path, her fists clenched with defiance.

* * *

><p>Emma couldn't believe that Ava had actually gone. Well, ok that wasn't entirely true. She was descended from some of the most stubborn people in all the realms, getting a double dose of stubborn from both herself and Killian so it didn't really surprise her all that much.<p>

She'd half expected Ava to come running back after about a half hour, something she'd always done. As a little girl, every time she got into trouble about something, Ava would storm off to scream or cry or whatever it was she did, but she'd always come back, her little face downcast. She'd tug on the hem of Emma's jacket and say, "I'm sorry Mommy. Please don't be mad."

And Emma would scoop her up and cover her little face with kisses, telling her daughter that she was no longer mad. That she loved her very, very much. And Ava would always reply that she loved her too.

But as Ava was, _had _been, reminding her for the past several years, particularly these last several months, she was no longer a little girl.

With a groan, she started to follow the path Ava had taken. "Ava!" She called. "Where are you?"

There was no reply, her voice echoing across the empty land. Mary Margaret had once told her of how majestic the Enchanted Forest had once been, full of people, the forest echoing with the pounding of horses' hooves on the dirt ground. But the Enchanted Forest she'd traveled to almost 20 years ago, when she'd met Aurora and Mulan, had been a far cry from her expectations.

It was kind of amazing that this place hadn't changed at all since she'd last been there. In fact it looked nearly the same. Weren't cities supposed to like, evolve or something? Not that this was a city but still. There were people left-wouldn't they build some more and expand on their refugee camp?

Whatever, she wasn't there to admire the scenery. She was here to find Ava and then take her home. And then ground her until she was 30. Possibly longer.

"Ava!" Emma called out again. "Where are you? Ava, I know you're mad but it's dangerous here. Come on."

She continued down the path, the landscape growing more and more familiar. It was probably because she'd been here before, but she didn't have the same old reminiscing feeling she'd expected. More like déjà vu…

_There's the same mound of sand that looks like a face _Emma thought to herself, remembering the day she and Mary Margaret had been dragged through the desert by Mulan and Aurora. _And the bunny shaped cloud. _

How was that possible? Buildings may not change very much but nature did. Rain would've washed away the sand. Wind would've blown away the clouds, changing their shape.

Something was seriously wrong.

"Ava!" A note of desperation laced itself into her voice. "AVA!"

And then Emma stopped short, both dread and confusion pooling in the pit of her stomach. Because standing before her was the exact same refugee camp she and Mary Margaret had been taken to the day they'd been captured. The day the stupid wraith had fallen through the hat's portal, grabbing ahold of her ankle before she knew what was happening.

_There's no way this is real. Realistically it had to have changed._

Unless magic had interfered.

"Ava! Av-"

Suddenly she was being pulled down to the ground behind some bushes, a hand clamping itself over her mouth. "Shhh." Hissed a voice in her ear.

Emma twisted around to find Ava kneeling in the dirt next to her. "Oh my God there you are. Are you alright?"

"Yes, yes." Ava said hurriedly. "Shh." She repeated, pointing at something about a hundred feet away. "Look."

Something about Ava's nervous, confused expression that mirrored the way Emma felt caused her to do as told, peeking out from behind the tall bushes.

A figure clad in head to toe armor was walking, a sword hanging by her side. Though from the back she appeared ambiguous, her small form gave her identity away as a woman. Next to her was another woman, this one in a lavender dress and long, long white cloak. They appeared to be shell-shocked, staring at the ruins.

There were two other voices, indicating that these two women were not alone. One was of a higher pitch, very feminine yet strong. And the other…well Emma would know it anywhere. She'd heard it every day of her life, listened to it change over the years.

"What…happened?" Lavender gown murmured.

"Must've been Cora."

Wait. Cora? She was dead.

And then something happened that caused Emma's heart to stop. That caused Ava's eyes to widen to the size of saucers. That caused both of them to have to clench their teeth to suppress their gasps.

Because standing in front of them, was Emma Swan herself.

**Author's note: Um...what?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: One and a half weeks in, and I'm already sick of school. When's spring break again?**

Chapter 3

Ava had always known of her mother's penchant for leather jackets. When she was little, she would sneak into her mother's closet and try on all her clothes, pulling on her mother's favored red leather jacket. It had gone all the way to her toes.

But she'd never actually seen her mother wear that jacket in person, at least not that she could remember. Mom had stopped wearing it when Ava was about five. Until now. It was almost like seeing a superhero or a celebrity come to life, seeing that infamous jacket worn in real life.

When Ava's dad found her, knee deep in a pile of her mom's clothes with the jacket draped over her shoulders, he'd been more amused than mad. He'd always been like that; Ava had a hard time believing that he'd once been a ruthless pirate captain. To her, he was Daddy, someone she could always soften with some whining. Ava figured she'd inherited the way he'd always soften her mother up when she was mad by giving her what she'd dubbed the "stupid yet sweet idiot" look.

It was Mom who was a bit stricter. Though usually Ava got away with doing whatever she wanted, from pleading her dad to allow her to bake cookies one day when she was six even though neither of them had known what they were doing. Somehow _something _had exploded and Emma had come home to the mother of all messes. Chocolate smeared on the walls, flour covering the both of them, the floor sticky with raw eggs and crunchy from eggshells.

Both Killian and Ava had been hiding in the bathroom, trying to clean themselves up when they heard the front door open and a loud gasp.

"Hook!"

That's when she knew her mother was _mad_; she only called him Hook when she was _pissed._

Her mom had stomped in, her face bright red. "What did you do? I told you not to let her bake."

"Why hello there Swan." He'd lilted, a goofy smile on his face.

Ava could see her mother's expression falter for a second. Only for a second, though, as she started ranting.

But then he'd flashed her that look, raising his eyebrows, and seconds later all had been smoothed over. Even so, she hadn't been allowed to have dessert that night (which didn't stop her dad from sneaking her an Oreo later).

Yes, Mom had always been stricter. Not as strict as Regina could be, from what Roland had said, but stricter than Dad. But looking at the woman not ten feet away, who was nearly identical to the woman crouched in the bushes beside her, she could tell right away that _that _Emma would be far different.

The other Emma Swan, who Ava decided to call "Emma" and refer to the one that had come with her as "Mom", wore the very leather jacket that Ava had loved to try on so much as a child. Unlike Mom, who mostly wore sweaters now, giving her a softer appearance, Emma appeared tougher. More closed off. But how was that possible? They were the same person, yet right away they appeared so different.

Ava's eyes snapped to her mother, who had gone uncharacteristically sheet white, her jaw slack and her eyes glazed over. She seemed to be fixated on her other self, her eyes following other Emma's every move.

"W-what's going on?" Ava heard herself ask. Although her mind had been firing at a million times per minute, in the same way debris does when flying off a windshield during a storm, the second she saw her mother's reaction her thoughts broke off. "That's you. B-but you're right here." She looked wildly around. "Were we followed? Is this a trick?" The lady in the pink cardigan turned around, and with a jolt Ava recognized her grandmother, none other than Snow White/Mary Margaret herself.

Mom seemed to be muttering to herself, and it took Ava a second to realize that she was following along exactly with what Emma and the others were saying.

"Wait, how are you doing that?" Ava blinked as her mother rattled off exactly what Emma said a second before she watched her say it. Ava was a champion at reading lips, having had lots of experience spying on others, mostly for prank purposes, and it was coming in pretty handy.

This scene was a bit familiar, like something she'd seen in a movie or read about in a book. _A book. _Of course, that was it! One of Ava and Henry's favorite rainy day activities back when she was little, before he'd moved out, was to update the storybook and add stories that hadn't been included, such as their adventures in Neverland or when Regina and Cora came to town.

_Or how her parents met. _

Yes, everything fit. That would explain why her mother was wearing the jacket that she'd shoved into the back of her closet so long ago. Why she looked the same, yet there were the small, niggling differences. Her hair was a bit longer. Her under eye circles not as prominent. Her composure more closed off. This was before she'd fully accepted her parents and before she'd fallen in love with Dad. Her mother had always told her that she used to be far different, but Ava had never been able to imagine that, until now.

Except...wait. How was she seeing a scene that happened in the past? Unless they'd-

"Traveled back in time." Her mother murmured beside her, finishing the sentence that Ava had started in her head. "But how?"

Time travel. Well, that made sense. She'd always heard that it wasn't possible, but what she'd learned as the daughter of the Savior and Captain Hook was that anything was possible as long as you believed.

"Wow." Her mother shook her head. "Wow. Now we have to find a way to get back to the future. Oh my God, who are we? Marty McFly?"

Ava mentally ran through one of her favorite movies and smiled. If she got to go on half the adventures Marty McFly did, she'd never ask for anything ever again.

Next to her, her mother was _still _rambling to herself. "How is this possible? What if we can't get back? We'll be stuck in the past! Why can't I just have a normal life?"

"Mom, chill. It's fine. We'll just wait till you-I mean she-they-those people leave. It's all cool."

"What if they see us? Then what'll happen? I've seen enough movies to know that if your future and past self see each other terrible things, well let's just say it all goes straight to hell."

"They're not gonna see us." Ava said, though she secretly thought it'd be cool if that happened. What if Mom and Emma started to, like, fight each other? That would be so bizarre. Like a twisted twin situation.

She shifted in the dirt, trying to get into a more comfortable position as she watched her mother, grandmother, and the two other women that she now knew were Aurora and Mulan talk and sift around in the ruins. "What're they looking for?"

"Other survivors." Her mother pointed at a seemingly random spot in the ruins. "Look."

Ava squinted and spotted the outline of a black clad figure. "Is that-?"

"Yup. That's your Dad."

Right. That was how her parents had met. Her father had pretended to be a traumatized survivor so that he could gain the women's trust. He'd been working for Cora and wanted them to help him find the golden compass. But of course, being the cynical, jaded person she'd been, her mother hadn't believed him and had literally forced him to reveal his plan.

Every time her father told this story he claimed that it had been part of his agenda all along to reveal his true identity as Captain Hook to the women, so that they would trust him because he "told them the truth." But her mother had revealed that her father had truly been scared when Emma nearly left him to be eaten by an ogre. And then they'd start to yell at each other. Or rather Emma would start sassing him and Killian would start rambling about what a good looking pirate he was.

Yeah, her parents were weird.

Ava watched in anticipation as her mother neared where her father was "hiding". She was finally going to see how her parents met. Of course she'd heard the stories but it was nothing like the real thing.

As excited as she was, though, she kind of wished they'd hurry it up a bit. She had to pee _so bad _and her legs were growing numb. She shifted so that she was sitting cross legged, her foot coming in contact with a twig.

Snap!

"What was that?" Mulan called, a frown crossing her face, disfiguring her petite features.

"I think there's someone over there."

The four women started to move, Aurora's skirts rustling across the wreckage as they made their way over to where Ava and her mother were huddled.

Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. Ava had watched enough movies to know what would happen if they got caught. MAybe the others wouldn't flag her as dangerous, but if they saw Current Emma (though it'd be Past Emma to them, right?) they might think it was dark magic.

She held her breath and crossed her fingers, willing herself to be as quiet as possible as Mary Margaret squinted at the bush.

"Hello? Anyone there?" Her grandmother called.

_Whatever you do, don't cough or sneeze or do anything that'll make any noise. _Ava's lungs were beginning to burst from the effort of holding in her breaths.

Emma was coming closer and closer, her eyes scanning across the land. Any second now the eyes that Ava was so familiar with would land on them, the hair that was so similar to her own. The women would drag them out and capture them. Kill them, possibly.

"Hello?" Mulan echoed.

"We won't hurt you." Aurora added.

_I'll return the wand if they don't catch us. _Ava silently thought. _Please go away. _

And then, almost as if she'd willed it to happen, Past Emma shrugged. "Guess it was just a bunny or something."

Mulan seemed to accept this answer. "Alright then. Come on, we should set up camp somewhere safer and regroup. There's no telling whether or not Cora will come back. This was clearly a warning, and with our luck she'll catch us here, waiting in her trap." Drawing her sword and casting a cautious look around, she began to lead the way into the forest. "And stay quiet. The ogres will be out soon."

As Mary Margaret and Emma followed the warrior, Ava heard a soft curse off somewhere in the ruins, though it was mostly masked by the dragging of Aurora's skirts across the ground so that the women did not hear.

Ava waited until they were out of sight before releasing all the air she'd been forced to hold back, her lungs crying with relief. "Oh my God. That was so close!"

"Not close enough." Emma agreed. She, too, cast a look around. "Come on. Mulan was right. We shouldn't stay here." She began to lead Ava away from the camp, a completely different one direction from the one her past self had taken.

"Where are we going?"

"Where nobody can see us." Her mother responded curtly. She'd drawn her gun and held it tightly in one hand. Ava silently wondered to herself why her mother never seemed to learn the lesson that guns didn't work against magic, but, well she'd inherited her stubbornness from somewhere right?

She wished her mother wasn't leading them through so fast; even for someplace that had been ruined by Regina's curse, the Enchanted Forest was beautiful, with the sunlight dappling in through the trees. Even the air smelled nicer.

"...open the portal." Emma was saying.

Ava snapped to attention. "What?"

Emma sighed. "Once I find a safe place you're going to open the portal and take us back."

"Do we have to?"

"Not this again. Ava, do you not understand the risks? Even just being here we have the potential to really screw things up. We have to go back to the future before anything goes wrong."

"Just-just hear me out. We've traveled back in time. Don't you think it'll be fun to, I don't know, poke around a bit? This isn't something that happens everyday."

"Yeah, for good reason." Emma pointed out. "What happens if we run into Cora, huh? Or my other-I mean past self? Or Mary Margaret? Or how about this? An ogre. I don't know about you but I'm not exactly a licensed Ogre Hunter."

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, Mom. And nothing will happen."

"You don't know that." Emma argued. "I never thought Henry would be taken by freaks masquerading as magic haters to Neverland of all places, until it actually happened. I never thought my parents would end up to be fairy tale characters. I never thought I'd end up in jail, alright? I'm just trying to protect you from everything I had to go through.

"But this isn't about you. Look, I get that your life sucked. I really do. And it's not that I don't appreciate everything I have. But we're already here. The least we could do is hang around for a bit. What's the harm?"

"Have you seriously not been listening?" She shook her head. "No, you know what? I'm done explaining." Emma shoved the wand into Ava's hand. "Make the portal and take us home. Now."

Ava weighed her options for a moment. She could run, sure. She was pretty fast, which came in handy when it came to running away from people she'd pranked. But Emma was fast too. She could probably easily outrun her. And there was the possibility that her mother knew this place better than she did.

Yes, running would not be smart.

She threw a scathing glare at her mother before turning her back. "I hope you're happy."

Emma shot back a tight lipped grin. "Oh, very."

Ava rolled her eyes before gripping the wand and closing her eyes, picturing her bedroom back home. Her _BORING _bedroom. There was a whoosh, and her hair stood up.

"There we go." She said, her voice steely. "Now let's go back to lame old Storybrooke."

When there was no response, Ava turned around. "Mom?"

But Emma was gone.

**Author's note: Where did she go? Hint-does it have something to do with Hook?**


End file.
